Paragon

You could also use a fork design to straighten it some after heating of course. I would think.. but if you dont have a fork. hammering should work.

If you can make your own, the main cost will be refractory and a propane regulator.

Making Charcoal is just the burning of wood with little oxygen available. Nothing fancy is needed from what I have read. You can dig a hold in the yard, fill it with wood, start it on fire and cover it over. Mass production is done in large piles of wood and covered with dirt or sod after starting the center on fire.

It is probably the oxidation. Once you are done forgins, let it cool down and clean the piece with wire brush/wheel then heat it and then apply the wax. With the low heat needed for the wax application, you shouldn't have any issues with oxidation. Doing this, I didn't have any issues with coloration.

All I wanted was an empty freon or helium tank to make a forge out of. Might have to break down and just buy one. I got a can of Redbull, gas card, and some cash. Exciting Christmas.

Learned the basics of MIG and TIG while working in the machine shop at college. Never used TIG that much so I never got good at it. The main thing I learned on MIG is to go slow so ya get a nice bead. Taught myself last year (still teaching) how to OA weld. Havn't had the need to cut anything with it yet. Bought the OA kit cause I wanted to braze my own bike frames.. havn't gotten around to that, yet so in the meantime, I build things and used it to forge some items for last christmas.

:confused: Just cut the wax. If you have to, take a thin wire or better an old knife and heat it up to cut right through it.

I think the natural gas line would probably be too low pressure to do any good. What kind of basement are we talking about?

I got my block from Michael's local store. It is in the candle making section. You can find small pieces at places like a quilt shop but the price is usually high. They use it to run the thread through or something. Bees Wax It is a large block around 9x4x1

I was just looking at the clay forgin BP. This is a great application for it.

This if from Ron Reil's site talking about the Mongo burner

Thanks for the reminder.

It seems that the best way to go is to make one using a Tweco 14T MIG tip. Once you decide to do that, seems like there are only a few different designs that tip can be used on (venturi type design - the gas nozzle must be on a pipe that sticks down the burner tube like in the picture on that Burner Choices page.) Garey Ford's : BP0192 Gas Forge*-*I Forge Iron - Blacksmithing and Metalworking DocsMachine's : http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/three-hour-forge-lots-o-pics-4021/ Mongo's from Reil's site. I'm wondering if anyone has made one of the nanomongo or micromongo. Since the micromongo can burn hotter than the EZ burner, I'm thinking that the nanomongo will be fine for me. **BTW.. I don't have a forge, haven't made a burner yet.. just going by what I have read.

You can lay acetylene down bet even for a short 20-30 minute short trip, I would let it sit for at least an hour before use. The place I go has one that is cut in half. The inside is totally filled with a porus material. I made a carrier out of wood that I put behind the passenger set of the car. I set the cylinders in that and tie it up and wedge it in with the front seat. It is not moving anywhere and it is better than having them in the trunk. I don't have a truck so I do the best I can. The thing you have to remember with acetylene is that it is heavier than air so can settle in low areas. I usually drive with the window open and drive straight home.

This may help. tong making - Blacksmith Picture Gallery

washers are compressive so it wouldn't matter what their rating was. I would think you would need at least the same grade nuts otherwise the weakest link.

They were using lead or something.. the metal had a low melting temp as it wasn't even smoking the wood much so I don't knwo what they were trying to make it look like. They revisited that one as someone already mentioned. Only grinding was shown..

Leafs, rose.. tools. If I am able to make a rose with an oxy acetylene torch as my heat source, large piece of steel for my anvil, some hammers, pliers, few makeshift fullers (I used the smooth section of a large bolt for a fuller and rounded the end of a 5' long prybar for a forming tool for the rose.. few other things) Start simple. You may have difficulty with a rose as I used the OA to weld.. but you could possibly braze with the forge or make due some other way. Skim through the blueprints and see what gets your fancy. Items out of RR spikes are usually easy.. coat hooks, letter opener, bottle opener... I would try to make tools if it were me. They require too much heat to be doing with an OA torch as the heat source (as does anything large like a RR spike)

Wow.. Those look awesome! Always have been a fan of the Japanese ways.

I did my first forging last year using a OA set for the heating. Another nice thing is that I used it to weld the rose bud and leaf to the stem and it blends in nicely. Easily touched up if needed since the weld is at forging temp when you are done I own my tanks, but exchange tanks to get them filled. You just pay for the gas. (this is why a lot of people say don't bother with getting brand new tanks as most places will do tank exchange - you would have to wait around for over 7 hours for your acetylene tanks to be filled) I have a set of 40 cu ft tanks. I think it cost around 25 to get them filled. If at any time I feel I need larger tanks, I can trade these in and get bigger ones. They will give full credit for these tanks (going rate for them when I trade them in) to go towards the larger set. After you think about it, exchange system isn't that bad. You always have a good tank. I think if you have an old tank that is out of certification (hasn't been presure tested in a long time) they will exchange it but if it turns out bad, you basically have to pay for the tank you received.

One thing to check into would be cycling socks or similar. They are designed to breath and wick the moisture away while being comfortable. Some also have a little padding on the bottom. These are very nice for cycling. They can be pricey at around $10 a pair but should last a long time. For those of you doing forging every day (I wishi I was) it might get expensive just for some socks :(

I don't have a forge yet.. but I think the idea of using bricks in that coal forge is to contain the fire in a smaller area so the heat is concentrated in a smaller area and will heat the small piece faster. From what I gather, the hard fire bricks are resistent to heat but to not insulate as well as an insulating brick. They will hold the fire and coal where you need it but will not hold the heat in as well as an insulating brick (usually white and very soft). An insulating brick will not hold up as well to material contact as a hard brick. Coal forge will get more contact use from the coals and tools so a soft brick would be turned to dust quickly. Gas forges need to use insulating brick to hold the heat in because the flame is usually smaller and you want to contain it to get the most heat out of it.(coal forge.. the coal is the fuel so you can have a large flame area and get a lot of heat out of it since your work piece is put directly in the flame center) They also use a hard fire brick at times on the bottom to have something to set the work piece on so you don't damage the forge. At least that is how I see it. Hope this helps.

I was working cleaning out the garage at the old house and my hands were freezing with a single pair of brown jersey gloves. I put a pait of white cotton ones over them and the hands stayed warm! I like the idea of the felt in inside the boot. Also read about standing on wood on another thread. Never throught of that. The winter boots I have are horrible for cold weather (got them for college so I was never outside that much) The hand warmers.. picked up a pair at Home Depot yesterday to see how they are. Also picked up a pack of foot warmers. They are wider to fit the toe area of the boot better. Both at Home Depot in the seasonal section. Feet ones were around .90 and the hand ones were a tad over a buck I think. One thing that might be good is I have seen at places 2'x2' sections of a ply/particle board with plastic bottom that holds the wood off the concrete. They are supposed to snap together. A tad pricey @ $6 or so for a section. Probably be better off getting a sheet of high density foam (the pink stuff for insulating the outside of basement walls) and laying a sheet of particle board over it

Nice!.. Love the rose. A lot more involved than the one I made last year, although that rose probably took you a lot less time than what I spent on my whole rose. If I get time, I might try to make another one this year for Mom. Don't know if I will have time.

That is too cute. For leafs, I made my first using a piece of.. 3/8" square stock I think. Yeah. Just checked. It was material that I had for a welding project when I got the smithing itch so I used it. I have only made a few things.